It Disfranchises
By chance, I saw the news about the Texas voter ID law just before re-reading W.E.B. Du Bois’ “Returning Soldiers” from 1919. Du Bois’ piece is a stirring call to the black soldiers returning from WWI to now engage in the fight for democracy at home. In it, he lists the sins of this nation […]
When Change?
Right now I’m reading Cry, the Beloved Country, a novel set in South Africa and published in 1948. As I don’t know much about South African history, it is an eye-opening and moving account. But it is also a bit dated. There is a lot of discussion about whether apartheid will ever end, whether black Africans […]
New Politics Blog: Town Square Politics
I’ve launched a new politics blog with some friends: Town Square Politics. They don’t share my political perspective, but they are among the rare people I know who can carry on a civil but passionate political discussion on Facebook. So we’re hoping to bring that tone to our collaborative blog. Each week we’ll be posting independently […]
Summer Reading
This summer I assigned myself six canonical works of 20th century African American literature. This was prompted in part by a student last quarter commenting that he had read either Invisible Man or Native Son (I’ve forgotten which) and raving about the book. When he asked whether I had read it I had to confess […]